Touring Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm for Shaped-Beam Pattern Synthesis of Linear Antenna

An efficient search technique based on a touring ant colony optimization algorithm is presented for the shaped-beam pattern synthesis of a linear antenna array. The element excitations of equally spaced array and the element positions of uniformly excited array are determined to closely approximate the desired pattern. In the touring ant colony optimization algorithm, the frequency memory feature of tabu search is used. Illustrative examples of cosecant, flat-topped and pencil beam patterns are given to verify the validity and accuracy of the technique.

Keywords:

• pattern synthesis
• linear antenna array
• touring ant colony optimization